In the money Old School, a character named Frank “the Tank” rediscovered his youth, his joy of living, and got shot in the net with a dart designed to tranqulize horses, Frank Kassela has enjoyed a similar rejuvenation minus the dart, of course.  The 42 year old part time pro from Memphis Tennessee has been on the fringe of a lot of successes and never quite gotten over the hump.  This year things panned out a little differently.  When he hit the World Series this year he dominated it.  And despite, the World Series of Poker in itself becoming a bit of a summer frat party for 21 year olds, he wasn’t out of his element in fact he thrived.

Granted poker has changed a lot in a short amount of time but at its core it’s still the same game and a guy like Kassela understands that, so while his succes may be as much a surprise to the Internet generation who play poker online as Will Ferrell’s character in Old School trying to lead a nonexistant group streaking on the quad was to the teens at the party, to the rest of poker’s pros it was simply Kassela’s time just as it was simply Frank the Tank being Frank the Tank.

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, Frank has the inside track to the trophy but it’s not quite officially his yet. Like the movie Old School there are still time for some twists and turns.  As of the July 9th the World Series of Poker’s Nolan Dalla is reporting Kassela holds a commanding lead in the points race which is almost impossible for his rivals to overcome.  But it’s not quite IMPOSSIBLE in the Texas Holdem Main Event.  We’ll examine who needs to do what to catch him, but its is almost a lock that Kassela will be recognized as the best player  for this entire world series for his performance in the 54 open bracelet events (excludes seniors, ladies, and tournament of champions events which aren’t quite open to everybody).

Kassela’s epic World Series includes two titles, a third final table finish, and five in the money finishes.  He’s won more than 1.2 million in just this years series.  He’s not done yet with a ton of chips in the World Series of Poker’s Main Event, as the field is getting closer to the In-The-Money bubble.

The players still sniffing around with a chance to win include a pair of guys that set off on fire during this series and have barely cooled off since.  Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi and Vladimir Schmelev battled it out on two final tables.  Their first time clashing resulted in “The Grinder” winning his first World Series of Poker bracelet in the 40k Poker Players Championship.  Schmelev, the high stakes rounder from Mother Russia was just getting started.  He had a number of deep finishes and was an early favorite for the Player of the Year.  Later he and the Grinder battled it out on a final table neither player was able to win.  Dan Heimiller and James Dempsey are also in the race with thin hopes and taking the overall player of the year title.

Kassela will win the POY trophy if he finishes 9th or higher, and any of the other guys finishes 2nd or lower.  There are some tie possibilities too.  Vladimir Schmelev wins the player of the year trophy if wins the Main Event (no small task) and Kassela finishes 10th or lower.  He could tie Kassela if he finishes 2nd and Kassela does not cash.  Yeah, you can tell just how unlikely these events are to happen.  Dan Heimiller wins if Heimiller wins the Main Event and Kassela finishes 19th through 27th.  He ties Kassela if Heimiller wins 1st and Kassela finishes 10th through 18th.

We’ll get to the rest of the permutations in our next post, to be continued…